It has been reported that the U.S. military has devised a drone hell strategy, deploying thousands of drones in preparation for a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The approach involves operating unmanned systems to delay China’s invasion of Taiwan, essentially serving as a first line of defense.
On June 10th, The Washington Post (WP) conveyed this information through an interview with Samuel Paparo, the U.S. Indo-Pacific commander, who attended the Asia Security Conference of the International Strategic Studies Institute (ISIS) held in Singapore from May 31st to June 2nd.
This strategy was designed to disperse China’s forces and buy time for the U.S. to respond. Paparo stated, “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities.”
“I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything,” he added.
According to WP, the plan includes combating thousands of unmanned systems, ranging from surface ships and submarines to drones, as soon as the Chinese military begins to cross the Taiwan Strait, essentially serving as a first line of defense. This strategy requires substantial investment in drones, and the U.S. Department of Defense plans to implement it through its Replicator initiative, an autonomous weapons system introduction program.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced the Replicator program to deploy thousands of autonomous systems last year. The Replicator is a low-cost artificial intelligence (AI) unmanned autonomous weapons system introduction program pursued by the U.S. Department of Defense to counter the numerical superiority of the Chinese military. The U.S. Department of Defense plans to spend $1 billion on the Replicator program for the 2025 fiscal year. Admiral John Aquilino, former Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, stated last year that the U.S.’s unmanned capabilities will have an “asymmetric advantage that China doesn’t have.”
Paparo’s remarks came after China’s military “rehearsal” maneuvers to encircle Taiwan following President Lai Ching Te’s inauguration last month. At the time, Paparo also said in an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in Japan that “it seemed like a rehearsal for an invasion.”
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